I do 🙋 🙄

It’s why I was so fucking excited when my friend Sarah told me about her new thang… The 12 Experiments! Instead of doing ONE New Year’s Resolution (TBH I never like doing those), you choose one experiment each month of the year!

Because, honestly, there are some things I’ve been saying I want to do FOR YEARS and I’m tired of being disappointed in myself for not even trying many of them.

I joined a climbing gym!

Some quick backstory: I went to a tiny (600 students total!) college in the valley of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas and my favorite thing was our outdoors program! One year, I got my work-study job as the assistant and I got paid to help plan camping trips, to organize funding for a custom mountain bike trail AND to help with the bouldering cave that we had built. It was amazing and I felt so connected to nature and my body while I was a student.

Then I graduated college in 2011, entered the “real” world and basically forgot about bouldering and climbing, until 2016 and I started dating A and he was a climber; like a fucking AMAZING climber. And I dabbled in it but, only when I was dating A.

But I still always had the itch to do it MYSELF. Not because a man I was dating was doing it but because I actually am interested in it…

So my experiment this month of joining a climbing gym was a HUGE success! I chose Crux, here in Austin, because I like it, my friends go there, and it’s near my house.

I started with just one month (it was pricey) and I got my money’s worth by going 7-8 times. I actually lost count!

I would basically try to go 2-3 times a week. I have had my climbing shoes + harness for years so all I needed was a chalk bag.

Climbing in front of others is intimidating to a newbie like me so I went between 1pm-3:30pm when there were less people. That made it easier for me.

And y’all, I’m kind of obsessed! I typically do that- get obsessed about something and go ALL IN until I don’t want to anymore and … maybe that’s what happening but I don’t care because it’s FUN!

I’ve also gained 2 pounds of muscle so that’s a plus!

Good news- I renewed my membership for $20/month cheaper by joining my friends’ crew membership and I’ll be continuing to go.

I have dreams about climbing!

If you’re ever at Crux, come find me ;)

Are you feeling called to let go of some old habits and replace them with new ones?

I made this workbook last year (it’s still relevant though!) to help folks like you find some clarity. You can download it below if you wanna work through some patterns that might be blocking you from growing. Let me know what you think!